PANews reported on September 18 that modular blockchain Celestia stated on the X platform that Celestia's first mainnet upgrade Lemongrass has been launched. Lemongrass introduces features such as one-click interaction through IBC and cross-chain accounts.

PANews reported on September 18 that Sky founder Rune Christensen stated on the X platform that Chronicle Points, the original oracle that has supported Maker for the past seven years, has now been split and is currently available to eligible users.

PANews reported on September 18 that Hex and PulseChain founder Richard Schueler (also known as Richard Heard or Richard Heart) is currently under criminal investigation in Finland for serious tax evasion and assault, according to Decrypt citing local media reports. Finnish police suspect Richard Schueler of serious tax evasion and assault. On September 13, Richard Schueler was detained in absentia, which means he was not present at the time. Authorities are currently unclear about where he is currently. Last summer, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission accused Richard Schueler of illegally raising more than $1 billion through three unregistered cryptocurrency offerings. The regulator also accused him of defrauding investors of $12.1 million.

PANews reported on September 18 that according to Coindesk, the ICP-based non-custodial Bitcoin token ckBTC will be connected to the Cosmos ecosystem through Osmosis. Osmosis is working with the Omnity Network established by ICP to provide services to bridge non-custodial BTC to Cosmos. ckBTC is a Bitcoin token that is pegged to the value of BTC at a 1:1 ratio.

PANews reported on September 18 that according to Arkham monitoring, about 2 hours ago, a certain address transferred 259.674 BTC, about 15.55 million US dollars, to the ARK Invest Bitcoin exchange-traded fund ARKB 21Shares Bitcoin ETF. About 1 hour later, ARK Invest transferred the funds to another address.

PANews reported on September 18 that according to Theblock, fintech company Monerium launched EURe on the Noble blockchain, marking it as the first euro-backed stablecoin natively launched in the Cosmos ecosystem. EURe is collateralized by euro-denominated deposits and combined with the SEPA framework to enable instant euro transfers between on-chain and custodial bank accounts. Issuer Monerium complies with the EU's MiCA regulations and is the first electronic money institution to be allowed to issue electronic money on the blockchain since 2019. It issues regulated on-chain fiat currencies under MiCA authorization.

PANews reported on September 18 that hackers who launched a cyberattack against drug distributor Cencora Inc. received a total of $75 million, according to Bloomberg, citing people familiar with the matter. The money from the Cencora hacker attack was paid in Bitcoin in three installments in March. This is the largest known cyber extortion money to date. According to two people familiar with the matter, the initial ransom demand was $150 million. According to regulatory documents, Cencora learned in February that its system data had been stolen. Two months after disclosing the incident, Cencora began notifying individuals and state governments that their personal data (including name, address, date of birth, diagnosis, prescriptions and medications) had been stolen. The company's July quarterly report stated that most of the $31.4 million in "other" expenses in the nine months ending June 30 were incurred due to cybersecurity incidents in which data was leaked. It is not clear how these funds are related to the cyberattack.

PANews reported on September 18 that according to Cointelegraph, Amnis Finance, the liquidity pledge agreement on the Aptos chain, has completed a $2 million financing round, which was co-led by Borderless Capital and OKX Ventures, with participation from Aptos Labs, Arkgrow Pte Ltd, Ambush Capital, Gate Ventures, Sky Vision Capital, Old Fashion Research, Chorus One Venture, Re7 and Flowdesk. The new funds will enable Amnis Finance to accelerate the integration of its innovative liquidity pledge solution in the DeFi ecosystem of Aptos. The platform will continue to work on enhancing its services within Aptos while expanding its influence through strategic partnerships, promoting innovation, and adding more value to its growing user base.

PANews reported on September 18 that MANTRA, an L1 blockchain built specifically for RWA, announced that it will launch its mainnet in October. MANTRA Chain will provide a comprehensive and customizable set of tools that allow developers to customize solutions to their specific needs. This set of tools not only simplifies the process of putting real-world assets on the chain, but also ensures that the solution complies with regulatory requirements.

PANews reported on September 18 that according to Fortune, Hemi Labs, a startup co-founded by Bloq co-founder Jeff Garzick, has completed a $15 million financing round, led by Binance Labs, Breyer Capital and Big Brain Holdings, with participation from Crypto.com, Web3 Ventures, Hyperchain Capital, Alchemy and SALT Fund. Co-founder Max Sanchez said the company plans to use the funds to build Hemi's engineering team, add more Bitcoin interoperability features, and provide developers with advanced customizability, as well as incentives, grants and community adoption. Max Sanchez declined to disclose the company's valuation.

PANews reported on September 18 that according to official news, double jump.tokyo, Inc (hereinafter referred to as double jump.tokyo) recently announced that it will cooperate with AltLayer to develop the game-specific Verse Layer (L2 blockchain) based on the Oasys platform, "SG Verse" will be launched soon. SG Verse will provide support for double jump.tokyo's new blockchain game, which is based on the "Three Kingdoms War" series authorized by SEGA and is a classic arcade strategy card game based on the history of the Three Kingdoms in China. In addition, double jump.tokyo will introduce the ecosystem token "SG Coin (SGC)" for "SG Verse" and upcoming games. "SG Coin" will be used for in-game purchases and will be used in future game content and function expansion to further enhance players' gaming experience.

PANews reported on September 18 that Tether has become the cornerstone of the modern financial ecosystem. Tether has 350 million users worldwide, and its reserves are mainly composed of U.S. Treasury bonds, with holdings exceeding $97.6 billion. If Tether is regarded as a country, Tether's Treasury bond holdings rank 18th in the world, higher than Germany, the UAE and Australia. Tether focuses on financial transparency, resilience and cooperation with global law enforcement agencies, and has become a pioneer in the stablecoin market. Tether calls itself an industry leader in global law enforcement support and has been committed to addressing cryptocurrency fraud. Since its inception, Tether has worked with 180 institutions in 45 jurisdictions, frozen approximately 1,850 wallets involved in illegal activities, and recovered more than $113.8 million in assets. Tether is also a promoter of global financial inclusion, providing unprecedented support for the hegemony of the U.S. dollar. The company has also demonstrated its resilience and stability in resisting market fluctuations.

Written by: He Hao

Source: Wall Street Journal

On Tuesday, Nick Timiraos, a well-known financial journalist known as the "New Fed News Agency," wrote that the Fed is about to cut interest rates, but the magnitude of the first cut remains in doubt. The Fed usually tends to act by 25 basis points, but this time, the situation has become complicated.

Timiraos said straight to the point that the current Fed's benchmark interest rate is 5.25%-5.5%, the highest level in 20 years. The Fed is expected to start cutting interest rates on Wednesday this week in order to maintain a stable job market while cooling inflationary pressures.

PANews reported on September 18 that the full-chain liquidity asset protocol StakeStone launched the liquidity index Bitcoin SBTC ("StakeStoneBTC"). SBTC aims to build a full-chain liquidity BTC asset with the help of the native redemption liquidity of custodial BTC, solve the liquidity dispersion problem currently faced by many BTC derivative assets, and expand the application of BTC assets in the EVM ecosystem and other blockchain networks. SBTC contains a basket of packaged BTC assets, including BTCB, WBTC, FBTC and cbBTC.

PANews reported on September 18 that MicroStrategy announced the issuance of convertible senior notes with a total principal amount of US$875 million and due in 2028. The issuance is expected to be completed on September 19. These notes will be MicroStrategy's unsecured senior debt with an interest rate of 0.625% per year, payable semi-annually on March 15 and September 15 of each year starting from March 15, 2025. These notes will mature on September 15, 2028, unless repurchased, redeemed or converted in advance in accordance with their terms. MicroStrategy intends to use the net proceeds of this issuance to redeem the entire outstanding principal amount of US$500 million of MicroStrategy's 6.125% senior secured notes due in 2028 ("Senior Secured Notes"), and use the balance of the net proceeds to purchase additional Bitcoin and for general corporate purposes.

PANews reported on September 18 that according to CoinDesk, Borderless Capital launched its third DePIN fund, which supports $100 million. Investors in the fund include Peaq, a blockchain focused on DePIN, as well as Solana Foundation and Jump Crypto. As of April this year, the top 10 DePIN projects have raised more than $1 billion in total.

PANews reported on September 18 that according to CoinDesk, Revolut, a London-based fintech company that provides cryptocurrency transactions, intends to issue its own stablecoin, according to four people familiar with the matter. The company obtained a UK banking license in July and was valued at $45 billion earlier this year. It is said that it has made considerable progress in creating stablecoins. When asked about its stablecoin plans, a Revolut spokesperson said the company hopes to expand its cryptocurrency products, take a compliance-first approach, and become a safe haven for the entire cryptocurrency community.

Author: Nancy, PANews

With most crypto narratives weak, MEME is undoubtedly the largest traffic position in this bull market. Major exchanges have used this sector as a means to leverage traffic and win community reputation. Recently, the leading exchange Binance has been questioned and criticized by the community after launching multiple MEME coins in succession. The biggest controversy is whether to follow the hot traffic or stick to the narrative value.

Exchanges take sides, exacerbating the dispute over capitalization of MEME

The crypto market is in a liquidity crisis, and MEME has become a rescue white horse to recreate the "gold rush" and show strong market performance. According to crypto analyst arndxt, only 42 projects have outperformed Bitcoin this year, of which 11 of the top 15 are MEME coins.

By: Stella L (stella@footprint.network)

Data source: Footprint Analytics Games Research page

Cryptocurrency markets faced tough challenges in August, with both Bitcoin and Ethereum falling sharply in value. Bitcoin fell 9.3%, while Ethereum fell even more severely, reaching 21.4%, reflecting market volatility caused by global economic factors. Despite the decline in token market capitalization, activity in the Web3 gaming sector remained resilient. Daily active users (DAUs) grew 6.88% and transaction volume increased 8.94%, mainly driven by platforms such as Ronin and opBNB. However, the blockchain gaming industry has not completely escaped the overall market's difficulties, with the market value of gaming tokens falling 13.2%.

PANews reported on September 18 that the Layer 1 relational blockchain Chromia announced the establishment of a $20 million data and artificial intelligence ecosystem fund at the TOKEN2049 conference in Singapore, and plans to upgrade the "Asgard" mainnet. It is reported that the fund will be led by business development director Yeou Jie and aims to support data-intensive projects and AI applications. At the same time, Chromia will launch the "Asgard" mainnet upgrade in the fourth quarter of 2024, adding new extensions to support oracles, AI model calculations, and zero-knowledge proofs, further expanding its platform ecosystem.